Astronomy

Kuiper Belt object orientations support streaming instability hypothesisCredit: HST/StSci/SwRI/Simon Porter SAN ANTONIO -- June 25, 2019 -- A Southwest Research Institute-led team studied the orientation of distant solar system bodies…

Machine learning tool allows scientists to search stellar data for likely exoplanet host starsCredit: ESO/M. Kornmesser SAN ANTONIO -- June 25, 2019 -- Inspired by movie streaming services such as Netflix or Hulu, a Southwest…

Astronomy bot speeds up search for Jupiter's twinsCredit: ESO/M. Kornmesser Astronomers have a new tool in their search for extraterrestrial life - a sophisticated bot that helps identify stars hosting planets similar to Jupiter…

Credit: @The University of Hong Kong Dying stars that cast off their outer envelopes to form the beautiful yet enigmatic "planetary nebulae" (PNe) have a new heavy-weight champion, the innocuously named PNe "BMP1613-5406".…

For the first time, astronomers have found two giant clusters of galaxies that are just about to collide. This observation can be seen as a missing 'piece of the puzzle' in our understanding of the formation of structure in the Universe,…

Credit: T. A. Rector & B. A. Wolpa, NOAO, AURA Scientists from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and their collaborators investigated the mechanism of rapid reactivity of the F + H2…

Credit: NASA, ESA and F. Bauer This image shows an irregular galaxy named IC 10, a member of the Local Group -- a collection of over 50 galaxies in our cosmic neighborhood that includes the Milky Way. IC 10 is a remarkable object. It is…

First heat images of the rings enable scientists to determine their temperatureCredit: Imke de Pater, Seran Gibbard and Heidi Hammel, Icarus 180, 186-200 (2006) The rings of Uranus are invisible to all but the largest…

Credit: Graphic courtesy of PUNCH Team/Southwest Research Institute WASHINGTON - U.S. Naval Research Laboratory researchers partnered with Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) to shine a light on the impact of the solar atmosphere…

Credit: Krag Beverly The total solar eclipse's swath across Wyoming and the United States in August 2017 provided an opportunity for scientists to study a variety of celestial and earthly phenomena, from learning more about the sun's…